Mumbai: Advertising video on demand platform DistroTV has partnered with House of Cheer to onboard South Asian channels. The platform will cater to USA, UK, and Canadian audiences making it easier to distribute, market, and monetise content at no cost.
The company is also in advanced discussion with a further 15 to 20 channels that include regional languages like Tamil, Telugu & Malayalam. DistroTV plans to scale this operation over the next 12 to 18 months in other international markets.
“The DistroTV Desi Bundle is an easy pathway to reach the 20-million, strong South East Asian diaspora across North America and the EU, representing a large revenue opportunity," said the company in a statement.
DistroTV is a division of California-based media technology company DistroScale and has partnered with Indian TV broadcasters such as Times Network, Republic Media, News24, Mastii TV, E24 to distribute their content globally. It offers Indian channel content through a free service called DistroTV Desi focusing on entertainment, lifestyle and news geared toward the South Asian population abroad and airs in native languages including Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi among others.
“Today’s broadcasters and content creators face a few critical challenges, They struggle with the cost of content delivery, with understanding how to best drive viewership, and with how to effectively market and monetise their content," said DistroScale, co-founder and chief executive officer, Navdeep Saini, adding that, "At DistroTV, we aim to address all of these issues so that content creators can focus solely on their craft: producing meaningful content that will resonate with viewers.”
“DistroTV makes it easier than ever for Indian content creators and channels to distribute and monetise their content globally, without worrying about the setup, infrastructural, and ad costs, which is a huge saving on their bottom line,” said House of Cheer, managing director and advisor to DistroTV, Raj Nayak.
“The channel owners can simply focus on producing engaging content, and we will host and monetise their content, as well as syndicate their channels to other large streamers to widen their international distribution, income, and revenue opportunities," DistroScale, vice president of business development and content acquisition, Rajesh Nair.
“DistroTV ensures that all content is aggregated into one OTT platform, with the flexibility of having both linear TV and VOD. The platform absorbs all associated costs for content delivery, streaming, and marketing so that broadcasters and content creators do not pay any upfront investment or infrastructure costs. Leveraging its vast network and deep relationships with advertisers, DistroTV also monetises content for all clients," said a statement.
“Unlike other streaming providers, DistroTV also offers transparency to content owners through its LIVE dashboard, which allows for direct, real-time access to key viewership and revenue metrics at any given time. Metrics in the LIVE dashboard include viewer location, time of day shows were watched, the frequency of watching a show, and even how many ads a particular viewer saw during episode breaks. With access to key viewership metrics, broadcasters and content owners are able to make informed decisions and tweak strategy in real-time to drive maximum viewership and increase monetisation," it added.
